The Quilted Bear, a longtime restaurant and banquet hall at N111-W18611 Mequon Road in Germantown, closed unexpectedly early this week.

"The Quilted Bear is closed. We wish to thank you for your past patronage," the telephone recording at the restaurant said Friday. It also said messages wouldn't be returned. | Nov. 16, 2012»Read Full Blog Post(15)

Today is the first day of the rest of the Christmas and holiday shopping season.

Whether you are braving the cold to get Black Friday bargains, or sitting in your pajamas, drinking coffee and eating Thanksgiving leftovers, your job is the same: deciding what gifts to get whom. | Nov. 28, 2013»Read Full Article(1)

Found Footage Festival hosts Joe Pickett (left) and Nick Prueher introduce a video at a show in Milwaukee.

The Found Footage Festival returns Friday to Turner Hall Ballroom with an all-new, all-Midwest compilation of strange and wonderful stuff found on videos rescued from old tapes found in Dumpsters, warehouses, thrift stores, basements and other dark recesses of pop-culture ephemera.

How dark are those recesses? Among the clips promised for the festival's "Best of the Midwest" program: an excerpt from a home-shopping show from 1983, found in an Eau Claire warehouse; a kid's review of Disneyland first aired on Madison's cable-access channel in 1992; and a low-budget karaoke video series found in Milwaukee, called "Sing-Along With Frank Woehrle." | Nov. 28, 2013»Read Full Article

Idris Elba (left, with Riaad Moosa) plays Nelson Mandela in the new screen biography “Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom.”

It's Black Friday at the multiplex, too.

Seven films opened Thanksgiving week, and although dates may change, another seven are scheduled to open in Milwaukee on Christmas Day — and nine between now and then. They range from Oscar wannabes like Leonardo DiCaprio in Martin Scorsese's "The Wolf of Wall Street" and Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts in "August: Osage County," to crowd-pleasers like "Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues" and "The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug." | Nov. 28, 2013»Read Full Article

As part of the Indies First project spearheaded nationally by Sherman Alexie, Milwaukee writers will serve as guest booksellers from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday at Boswell Book Company, 2559 N. Downer Ave.

Happy Thanksgiving, faithful readers. If you haven't had time to plan your turkey day celebration (or just plain don't want to cook), check out the Iron Horse Hotel for Thanksgiving dinner. It costs $36 for adults; $18 for children and is available from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.